


Right Hand Man

by LittleUggie



Series: Pack of Strays [6]
Category: Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Ears, M/M, Will's Dogs are People
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 08:38:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12790827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleUggie/pseuds/LittleUggie
Summary: Max is helpful.





	Right Hand Man

When Max was in third grade, he had a terrible crush on his teacher, Ms. Aldridge. She was a pretty, young lupine who wore braids with beads and had silver on her ears and tail tips. Max constantly volunteered with an eager wagging tail to help her with anything she might need, cleaning desks, handing out papers, whatever.. She would smile at him with lovely white teeth and call him her right hand man. He wore the name like a badge of honor. 

As he got older, he maintained that identity. Max was someone who helped out. He was useful, and in the neighborhood he lived in, useful was a good thing to be. It kept you safe. Well, as safe as anyone could be when they were best friends with Buster. 

Buster was his brother, and he loved the shit out of the little lupine, but he had a complete inability to keep out of trouble. Mostly cause he never knew when to shut up. Max had to bail him out of more than one tight spot. When the Fax Pack cornered them, his life was already flashing before his eyes as Buster continued to spout off. Then the biggest stroke of luck they’d ever had stepped into the alley. 

The position of alpha in the street pack was a harsh one. A lupine rose to it through violence and deviousness, and then had to work like hell to keep it. Max and Buster had been on the good side of their pack’s alpha until the split, which mostly meant they kept their heads down and stayed useful. Drawing the alpha’s attention was not a good thing. 

Or so he thought until he met Will. To be honest, he wouldn’t have realized the lupine was an alpha if he hadn’t seen him stare down the Fax Pack enforcers. Then he just takes them in like it was nothing. Max kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, to see what the man wanted. When nothing was forthcoming, he did what he always does; makes himself useful. 

He starts helping Harley out. Max doesn’t know a lot about building or mechanics, but he’s a quick study. Harley is a pretty good teacher, too, and doesn’t mind explaining. They fall into an easy camaraderie that he had never felt with anyone besides Buster before. 

It’s him he ends up asking what the deal with this weird ass pack is. Harley laughs. 

“Part of the thing is, kid, Will doesn’t realize it is a pack.” 

“How? He’s the alpha!” 

“Yeah, he doesn’t realize that either. He sees it as just being a decent person.” 

Just being a decent person. Max watches Will after that, the way he interacts with the other house members. His unthinking kindness. The way he takes care of them all without expecting anything in return. How he accepts everyone as they are. Here is someone worth helping.  

He gets his GED and takes some business classes at the community college. He and Harley work to create an actual business as handymen to help cover the cost of everyone living there. When personalities clash (which they certainly do when you put Ellie and Buster in a room together), he smooths things over. Then when Winston arrives, Max is the one who fields the calls from the various government offices and helps put together the paperwork, and shows the case workers around when Will is at work. 

He goes with Will to pick up Winston from the group home. They stop at the store on the way back to get him some more clothes and some personal items for his new room. Max helps him carry his stuff up the stairs. He goes back to the living room to find Will stretched out on the couch looking tired and relieved. The alpha looks up at him and gives him a genuine smile. 

“Thanks for all your help during this ordeal, Max.” 

“No problem, boss.” 

“Really, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” 

_ Right hand man _ , he thinks.

 

Dr. Lecter is intimidating in a way Max has never experienced before. 

He knows all too well how alphas wield physical strength, but that’s not where Lecter’s power comes from. (Though he does move with a sort of prowling grace, maybe he does martial arts or something) Instead, he wears his class like armour: the profession, education, and money. Max can see that he uses it as effective a weapon as any knife or gun. 

And he is going after Will, one of the few people who won’t be impressed by his status. Hell, maybe that’s why he is interested. Still, they can’t just ignore the fact that there is a distinct culture difference. Most of the pack comes from, let’s face it, poor backgrounds. 

Not that Max knows this for sure. It’s sort of an unspoken rule in the pack that you don’t ask about each other’s pasts. If someone wants to share, great, but you let them volunteer the information. But there is an obvious tendency towards thrift among the pack members: generic brands, used clothing, buying in bulk (to be far, they needed to do that anyway as the pack grew). Luxury was going out to a restaurant with cloth napkins. Introducing Lecter into the mix, well. Issues were bound to arise eventually.   

Everyone except Will is gathered in the living room staring at the empty package open on Will’s mattress. 

“Even the box looks expensive.” Ellie says. “Who would have thought our Will would score a sugar daddy?” 

“I wonder if it matches Hannibal’s. He looks like the sort to color coordinate outfits.” Zoe adds. 

“I didn’t think people actually went to the opera. Isn’t it just a bunch of big ladies in helmets yodeling?” Buster rifles through the tissue paper in the box. “Actually, that sounds awesome. I’d watch that.” 

“What are you doing?” Max asks him. “It’s empty.”

“Just checking. I was hoping he had sent those things on a stick.”

“Opera glasses?” Jackson says. 

“Yeah.” 

“Maybe he won’t need them.” 

“What are they used for anyway?”

“To see the actors.”

“But they are already on stage.” 

“To see them better, I guess.”

“I don’t take a telescope with me when I go to the movies.” 

“I don’t know, Buster.” Jackson gets that slightly strained look that many people get when exposed to Buster for a long period of time. 

“Did you see the girl who delivered it?” Harley asks. “She looked lost. Bet she doesn’t deliver out in the sticks to ramshackle places like this much.” 

They all quiet down as Will steps out of the bathroom, clean shaven and wearing the tux that had been in the box. Ellie whistles. Will gives her a Look. She ignores it. 

“Who knew you cleaned up so nice, boss! Ol’ Hanni won’t know what hit him.” 

“I dare you to call him that to his face.” Buster says gleefully.

“Please, don’t.” says Will. 

Zoe goes over to him and pats his cheek. “You look very handsome, Will.”

“Thank you.” 

“Much less like a crazed hermit.”

“Yes, thank you, Zoe.”

“Or a bigfoot hunter.” 

“I’ve got it, Zoe.” 

“I met a group of them once. All flannel and beards.” 

“I-wait, really?”

“Yes. I was never sure what they planned to do it they actually caught a bigfoot. Or The Bigfoot.”

“Huh.”

Winston comes over and touches Will’s arm, running his fingers over the fabric. He gets to his wrist and picks it up to examine the glinting cuff links. They are a blue stone set in what is almost certainly platinum. The boy turns his hand this way and that so the reflect the light. 

“This must be a fancy to-do, he’s taking you to.” Max says. “Is he picking you up?” 

“No, I’m meeting him there.” Will says. He’s beginning to look slightly nervous. 

“You better go on then. Have a good time.” Everyone else chimes in with their well wishes and occasional inappropriate comment as he heads out the door. 

Max is playing cards with Ellie and Zoe when Will gets back late that night. He’s glad for the distraction because he is about to lose his shirt (he didn’t even know you could gamble when playing Old Maid). Will’s yawning as he comes in, bowtie undone and jacket slung over one arm. 

“How’d it go?” Zoe asks, shuffling. 

Will flops down on the couch. “The opera itself wasn’t bad. Kinda long, but the singing was impressive. It was the socializing afterwards that was torturous.” 

“Schmoozing with the bluebloods?” 

“Money so old you can smell the mold on it.” 

“The good doctor’s in real tight with the upper crust, then?” Ellie says, leaning back in her seat. 

“That’s an understatement. He’s practically the belle of the ball.” Will kicks off his shoes and looks pensive. 

Max goes over and picks the shoes up. Patent leather, they must have come with the suit. He stashes them under Will’s bed. 

“What did you talk about?” He asks, sitting down on the arm of the couch at Will’s feet. The alpha has an arm thrown over his eyes. 

“Not much.. Answered a few questions, but Hannibal did most of the talking.” He sighs. “The alphas of the D.C. pack were there.” 

“Holy crap.” Ellie sits forward. “That’s one of the biggest, most powerful packs in the country.” 

“I know. Apparently they are on a first name basis with Hannibal.” 

Max frowns. “Was he part of that pack?” 

“No. I don’t think he’s ever had a pack before.”

“Then why-” 

“They seemed like they would like to have him join, but can you picture Hannibal as a beta?” 

They all contemplated that in silence for a moment. 

“Yeah, no.” says Ellie. 

“Exactly.” There is an undercurrent of something else in Will’s tone. 

Max studies him. His forehead is still all wrinkled up in a frown, ears twitching back and forth.

“Did they talk to you?” 

Will peeks at him from under his arm. He gives a self-deprecating grin. “Oh, they were really interested in why Hannibal had brought some white trash lupine with him.” His ears go back at the memory.

Max frowns. “You’re a pack alpha. We might be small, but they still should have shown you some respect.” 

“Contrary to what you all might say, there is not much about me that really screams alpha.” 

Max blinks and looks over at the women. Ellie shrugs. Zoe just sighs and shakes her head. He turns back to Will. 

“You-” He stops and tries again.”It shows when you aren’t thinking about it.” 

Will moves his arm and sits up slightly. “What do you mean?”

Max licks his lips and thinks. “It’s like, being an alpha is just part of you, you do it instinctively. But if you start thinking about it, you get all messed up.” Max brightens up. “It’s like thinking about your tongue.”

They all stare at him. 

“Max, what the hell are you talking about?” Ellie asks. 

“So your tongue is always just in your mouth and you don’t think about it. But if you think about it, it suddenly feels all weird and like it shouldn’t fit.” 

There is another silence as they think about this. 

“Goddamnit, Max. This is going to bother me all night now.” Ellie huffs and gets up, disappearing up the stairs. 

“An interesting comparison.” Zoe says. “For the record, I think he’s right, Will. You are a natural alpha.” 

“Yeah, don’t let those snobs get you down. Lecter invited  _ you _ on a fancy date. He’s interested in  _ your _ pack, not theirs, because he can tell you’re the real deal.” 

Will smiles at him, a true one this time. The kind that makes his whole face light up. 

“Thanks, Max.” 

“No problem, boss. It’s what I’m here for.”


End file.
